Anyone else pulled over on the 45 South today? Seems like they got a lot of us headed to court….

Hi looking for advice or others who were stopped today (9/8). Today I was turning to go on the I-45 south expressway near downtown at 5:30pm. There were 10+ motorcycle cops stationed while one officer directed people to pull over before they could get on the actual expressway, myself being one of them. I was under the (mis) understanding that it’s toll tag or HOV, I was mistaken.

There were 6 or so other vehicles stopped with me. I was cited for using the expressway without a passenger (though, when I was pulled over they never asked if anyone else was in the car so what is there legal justification for stopping me?). I recieved two citations, one for hov violation and the other for “going through an open gate” does anyone know what that means? I got a court date which is suprising given they are both non moving violations and that the city of Houston has much bigger issues then stopping people who want to pay the city money to use their roads (hopefully fixing some potholes). The officer said there was a sign posted saying HOV only but when I looped back around there was no sign in sight. At rush hour traffic in a construction zone how closely should I be reading every sign? Rant over but any advice on how to navigate this and court is widely appreciated as I’m not from here.

TLDR: Houston traffic court advice for “going through an open gate” and trying to use an express road when it was “HOV” only, before actually getting on the expressway. Seems like the got a lot of us😓